The Photovoltaic Association has said that recent drops in the cost of solar panel production has made solar power increasingly competitive with coal-generated grid power

 

Recent gains in efficiency and productivity have seen significant decreases in the costs of electricity production, marking the attainment of ‘grid parity’.

 

Despite controversy over feed-in tariffs - which have been blamed for Australia's rapidly rising electricity costs - rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) panels are now generating electricity for the same price and sometimes cheaper than can be bought from the grid.

 

The Photovoltaic Association has announced that home-generated power should continue to make significant gains in the market share thanks to a number of factors, including a predominately sunny environment for solar panels to maintain high efficiency.